OUT-OF-WEDLOCK BIRTHS

Victor M. Eskew

 

          1,464,121.  This figure is the number of out-of-wedlock births that happened in the United States in 2022.  40.5% of all births are out-of-wedlock births.  Think about that.  Four of every ten births involve parents who are not married to one another.  The following are the 2022 statistics of out-of-wedlock births by race:  Whites (28.4%), Blacks (70.4%), Hispanics (52.8%), American Indians/Alaskans (69.6%), and Asians (12.2%).  These numbers represent an increase from years gone by.  Sadly, the number of out-of-wedlock births has also increased within the body of Christ.

          The divine mandate for producing children is no longer honored in our nation.  It is not even respected in the hearts of some who call themselves Christians.  God created a help meet for Adam (Gen. 2:18, 21-24).  It was in their marriage relationship that children were to be brought into the world.  “And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain…” (Gen. 4:1).  Adam did not know some girl he picked up at the bar on a weekend night.  Adam did not know his girlfriend.  He did not know his fiancé.  He did not know his live-in.  Adam knew Eve “his wife.”  In the New Testament, the apostle Paul revealed the relationship in which children are to be born when he gave instructions to the younger widows.  He wrote:  “”I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully” (1 Tim. 5:14).  Notice the order of Paul’s words:  marry then bear children. 

Sexual relationships out of wedlock were classified as sin by God.  Fornication is a Bible term that includes numerous sexual sins, including sexual relationships outside the marriage bond.  Fornication is condemned over and over in the pages of God’s Word.  It was a sin committed by the Gentiles when they refused to retain God in their knowledge (Rom. 2:28-29).  Paul told the church at Corinth that it was a sin that would keep one from inheriting the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9-10).  It is the second sin included in Paul’s “works of the flesh” in Galatians 5:19-21.  When Paul addressed the church in Ephesus, he commanded that “fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as cometh saints” (Eph. 5:3).  One of the problems of the church in Thyatira involved fornication.  Jesus rebuked the church with these words:  “Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols” (Rev. 2:20). 

          There are many causes for the increase in out-of-wedlock births.  First, they are encouraged by our present welfare system.  The more children a woman has out-of-wedlock the more benefits she will receive from the government.  Second, out-of-wedlock births have increased because the number of ineligible husbands has decreased.  Fewer and fewer men are growing up to be mature and responsible individuals.  Yes, they will have a sexual relationship, but they do not have the ability to care for a wife and child.  For some reason, some women are seduced by such men to their own detriment.  Third, the increase in contraceptives and abortion have increased out-of-wedlock births.  This is interesting because these things were supposed to decrease pregnancies in our nation.  Contraceptives do not always work.  Too, they are not always used.  Then, once a young lady is pregnant, she doesn’t always want to abort the child she knows is growing within her.  Fourth, the promotion of “equal rights” between men and women has increased out-of-wedlock births.  Instead of feeling an obligation to marry, men believe they have a right to decline marriage.  Some of them encourage the woman to get an abortion.  Others choose to support that child without being married to the mother.  Fifth, co-habitation is much more common today.  Instead of getting married, men and women live together.  In these instances, many women will have two or three children outside of the marriage bond.  Sixth, out-of-wedlock births have become acceptable to society.  There is no longer a sense of shame and embarrassment when a woman gets pregnant out of wedlock.  This is true among Christians as well as non-Christians.  Instead of things being hush-hush, everyone gets giddy and excited.  How God feels about the matter hardly crosses anyone’s mind.  Seventh, out-of-wedlock births are growing more common because we live in a world that no longer respects the holy and authoritative Word of God.  Men and women do as they please and satisfy the demands of the flesh, and God is supposed to be okay with their actions.  If He is not, the couple is not concerned about deity’s will. 

            Those who study and research the home refer to homes that have out-of-wedlock births as “fragile families.”  Researchers from Princeton University and Columbia University did a study of 5,000 children born out-of-wedlock in large cities between 1998 and 2000.  “…results of the study conclude that compared with ‘traditional families,’ parents of fragile families are more likely to have become parents in their teens, more likely to have had children with other partners, more likely to be poor, suffer from depression, struggle with substance abuse, and to have been incarcerated”  (Fragile Families: Most Children Born Out of Wedlock Aren't OK | HuffPost Women).  The factors just mentioned have a negative impact on the children.  That same article continues:  “… children of such families produce lower cognitive test scores and a have a higher incidence of aggressive behavior.  Furthermore, previous research demonstrates that children who live apart from one of their parents at some point in their childhood are twice as likely to drop out of high school, twice as likely to have a child before age 20, and one and a half times as likely to be out of school or work by their late teens or early 20s.”

          Dear readers, Satan is at work in our world, in our nation, in our homes, and in the church.  Remember, Peter teaches us that Satan is a roaring lion seeking to bring about destruction (1 Pet. 5:8).  In 1 Peter 5:9, the apostle tells us how to deal with this enemy.  “Whom resist steadfast in the faith…”  We, as the church, must begin to speak up.  In fact, we must speak up loudly and boldly against the ungodliness in our world.  Too, we MUST make certain that God’s precepts are both taught and practiced in our homes.  We cannot allow another generation to arise having no shame when babies are born out-of-wedlock  (See Jer. 6:15; 8:12).  Christians must view this for what it is, sin.  Too, we must view this as an attack upon the very foundation of our great nation.  If is allowed to continue, it will be one of the factors that will contribute to the downfall of the United States of America.